Blog

Content, SEO and social media news: weekly round-up

Grill’d boss: ‘Ban on blogging, tweeting and Facebooking was just a joke’

All the way over on the side of the world, Australian burger chain Grill’d has become a social media sensation … by banning social media. The company put posters up in its restaurant, urging people to eat and enjoy their burgers rather than photographing them and uploading the images to their blogs, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. The tongue-in-cheek campaign did not go down well with social media commenters: the blog Mumbrella accused the burger chain of “declaring war on social media”. In response, Grill’d updated its Facebook page to clarify that the posters were a joke not a serious ban on social media activity within their restaurants.

Tulisa’s PR agency sues Fleet Street Blues blog

The PR agency working for NDubz singer and X Factor judge Tulisa is suing Fleet Street Blues for libel, after the blog published an article claiming that Hackford Jones PR had issued a statement denying the authenticity of their client’s sex tape. Simon Jones, the founder of Hackford Jones PR, confirmed that his company was pursuing the blog for defamation after it published its article about PR ethics, telling the Press Gazette: “It was some pretty outlandish claims on the blog … This whole scenario with regard to this Tulisa sex tape denial comes out of the fact that people mistakenly attributed a quote to me with regard to the sex tape that wasn’t issued. The sex tape came out on Sunday online and from the moment it came online all we did was issue no comment.” Fleet Street Blues is currently offline.

Facebook brand pages transition to Timeline layout

Facebook’s new Timeline layout is to be rolled out across all brand pages today. The new style of layout, which is also being piloted on some users’ personal pages, lists all content chronologically, rather than separating the profile into separate pages for photos and status updates/ wall posts. Data from Vitrue implies that brands could experience a fall in fan interaction if they don’t update their Facebook strategy to accommodate the new layout: 52% of brands that switched to Timeline prior to today’s universal roll-out reported a reduction in engagement rate.